Green hydrothermal synthesis of gold and palladium doped titanium dioxide nanoparticles for multifunctional performance

The effects of gold (Au) and palladium (Pd) metals on the photocatalytic degradation of picric acid in water over lab-made titanium dioxide (TiO₂) synthesized using a green hydrothermal approach have been investigated. In is experiment, aloe vera gel has been used as a capping and reducing agent instead of other chemicals because it's non-toxicity property. Structural, morphological and optical properties have been studied and they confirm the presence of Au and Pd@TiO₂ nanostructures. Photocatalytic performances of Au and Pd@TiO₂ have been comparatively studied for degradation of picric acid in the visible light region. It is found that Pd@TiO₂ has in achieved higher performance (35 min for 0.015 M) compared to that of the Au@TiO₂ nanoparticles (55 min for 0.015 M), due to its morphological behavior. Increased visible light absorption is directly proportional to not only increased reactive oxygen (ROS) species but also highest cell death. On the contrary, the anticancer activity of A549 cell lines of Au and Pd@TiO₂ are investigated and found that Au@TiO₂ has resulted better performance (2.29 eV) compared to that of Pd@TiO₂ (2.58 eV) nanoparticles, due to their optical behavior.